day care and pets???

Question

In fact most state laws prohibit certain animals or certain sized animals to be at a day care, in home or not. does anyone know about this like the type or pets or the sizes. or where i can find this information??

Answer 1

This is a Health Department question. Also your Director may not allow pets, it is also a big liability issue with daycares if any child accidently gets biten by a small animal. It is best to stick with fish, but your aquarium must have a filter because the HD is very particuler on how clean the aquarium must be. If you are an animal lover like myself and understand the importance of allowing children the importance of early experiences with animals (teachers empathy, compassion and understanding,) than you will most likely want to have a class pet. What you can have in your class are animals that the children cannot touch, health dep. regulations sorry. But, you can have a parakeet: you can keep the cage in a fish aquarium so that the kids cannot touch the outside cage. You can have a dwarf hamster, but it must be a plastic cage, not wire. You can have dwarf frog. You can have a garden snake. Remeber though that the HD will talk to you abou the spread of salmonella and that the children cannot touch the class pets and even if they just look at them, the HD will stay tell you to have the kids wash their hands before and afterwards ( I know the HD is extremely strict on these guidlines.) You can have a hermit crab (easiest to care for beside fish and last forever.) You can have lady bugs, an ant hill. Your best bet and so that your director lets you and the health dep. is not on your case, best to stick with: Tropical fish, Fancy goldfish, Hermit crab, or garden snake (they are harmless and kids can touch them.) Because of allergies, spread of disease etc, the heatlh deparment does not allow: Ferrets, rabbits, pot belly pigs, not usually hamsters, (unless it's a dwarf hamster), guinea pig, hedgehog, etc. Now, jsut a bit of advice, most Director's right off will say no you can't have a class pet, because they don't want to deeal with the HD. But, if you call the HD yourself, and ask them if you can have fish, a dwarf hamster, a garden snake etc, and than appraoch your director and show her that you've done all this research about it, than your Director may be more apt. to say yes, because she will see that you've invested a lot of time into throughly looking into it. As you can see, I have gone through this issue many times with Directors. It pays to do your research. Kids seem to like the garden snake or hermit crab the best. Good Luck.

Answer 2

We've always had fish and small rodents like lab rats or hamsters in our classrooms. Fish are wonderful for the kids to feed and watch. And you can get a hamster ball for a hamster or rat and allow it to roll around on the floor. You have to watch out for hamsters because they have very sharp teeth and will bite, but the rats I've had were smart, friendly and affectionate and I never had trouble with them biting. I'm still cautious with them because any small animal will bite when frightened. Pets provide a good opportunity to teach responsibility and good hygiene. We always have to feed and water our pets and clean their homes, and we must wash our hands after we clean the cage our handle the pet. They also provide an opportunity to teach compassion and size. "Look how little he is. Are you bigger than he is or smaller? Do you think you would be scared if something so big walked up to you? Be careful not to scare him."

Answer 3

Running a daycare with pets is not much different of having a foster child and pets. We are regulated by law to have a rabies vaccination for all of our pets. Inside or outside, because any child in your care that gets bit by a dog or scratched by a cat, you are liable. If you have a dog or cat, there are some children that have allergies to animals. If you already have an animal, and you have a parent come to hire you, you need to show them that your animals are vaccinated. Please keep these current.

Answer 4

i don't know about your state, but in my state (tn), the only pet not allowed by health dept. law is a turtle, (they carry salmonella). other than that, any pet you're willing to care for and your director is willing to allow is fine. there aren't laws about whether the children can touch them, in fact, handling classroom pets is a great learning experience. there are regulations about washing hands afterward, however. you can probably go to your state's official website, click on the link for daycare regulations and scroll all through it until you find guidelines. or call the health dept. i don't believe the rules are very strict in most places, though.

Answer 5

the kind of pets I have shouldn't be allowed in Daycare. Spiders, Scorpions and most snakes.

Answer 6

in Ontario Canada you are regulated by the days nurseries act (DNA) it states what pets you may have and not have